Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Parkinson, Richard (1748-1815)
PARKINSON, RICHARD (1748–1815), agricultural writer, was born in Lincolnshire in 1748. Becoming a farmer, he was in or about 1798 recommended by Sir John Sinclair to General George Washington, who employed him as agriculturist at Mount Vernon. On his return to England he became steward to Sir Joseph Banks in Lincolnshire. He died at Osgodby on 23 Feb. 1815. Parkinson published: 1. ‘The Experienced Farmer's Tour in America: exhibiting the American System of Agriculture and Breeding of Cattle. To which are added Sketches published by J. B. Broadley,’ 2 vols. London, 1805, 8vo; another edition was published in the same year, with the title ‘Tour in America in 1798, 1799, and 1800, exhibiting Sketches of Society and Manners, and a Particular Account of the American System of Agriculture,’ 2 vols. 8vo. 2. ‘The English Practice of Agriculture, exemplified in the Management of a Farm in Ireland … with an Appendix: containing … a comparative estimate of the Irish and English Mode of Culture,’ &c., London, 1806, 8vo. 3. ‘Practical Observations on Gypsum, or Plaister of Paris as a Manure,’ London, 1808, 12mo. 4. ‘A General View of the Agriculture of the County of Huntingdon,’ London, 1809, 8vo. 5. ‘Treatise on the Breeding and Management of Live Stock … with an Appendix containing Tables of Prices,’ 2 vols., London, 1810, 8vo. 6. ‘A General View of the Agriculture of the County of Rutland,’ 1811.
[Pitt's General View of the Agriculture of Leicestershire, London, 1811, 8vo; Loudon's Encyclopædia of Agriculture, p. 1211; Donaldson's Agricultural Biography, p. 83; Appleton's Cyclopædia of American Biography, iv. 657.]